Poll: Pensions - Are you worried about the future?

How much is in your pension pot?

  • <£20k

    Votes: 69 20.6%

  • £21k - £30k

    Votes: 11 3.3%

  • £31k - £40k

    Votes: 15 4.5%

  • £41k+

    Votes: 168 50.1%

  • No clue

    Votes: 72 21.5%
  • Total voters
    335
MG42Maniac said:
I think for me, I don't really know how much is needed for a decent retirement. If we didn't have a mortgage now, I'd probably want £4K a month net for both of us minimum. (£1.5k bills & food, £2.5K spare) That would be a significant drop to what we are currently earning per month now but I think that should allow a decent standard of living. If you break that into £2K each, that's about a £30K pension each. We'd both need to be sticking in £1K a month which is crazy.


I am also not convinced the state pension will be around when we retire. I think it will be means tested and I don't expect to get a penny. I am factoring that into my calculations, I am more than happy to be proven wrong though!
Click to expand...
No, for younger people the state pension being means tested or something is a very valid concern I think. Obviously if you are on a decent wage now then a drop is not what you would want. For context at 57 I am currently happily living on approx 16k a year taken from my savings, that's for a couple with no debt, and not skimping at all.
Once my state pension kicks in I could quite happily take 6k from my private pension a year and carry on regardless, but I'm sure I'll find some toys to spend a bit more on ;)
 
Stretch said:
The market instability we are seeing in the UK is largely down to her. Anyone else could have done better. I would like to see her gone yesterday.

I understand a persion is a long term investment. But there is notthing about what we are experiencing at the moment which is going to improve my long term pension perforance.
Click to expand...
I'd love to know what your pension is invested in.
 
Mid 40s, no idea what’s in my pot but it won’t be a lot.

At no stage in my life have I ever felt that my income was enough that I could afford anything beyond minimum contributions without significantly impacting my quality of life. The longer it goes on the less realistic it is for me to catch up. I’m pretty much resigned to the idea that I’ll work until I die so I’m just going to enjoy the present and hopefully I wont get too old. No kids to worry about so if things get too bad there’s always Dignitas.
 
Last edited:
Von Luck said:
There's no pension fund, it's paid directly from taxation.
Click to expand...
I greatly worry that the obligations from all the non-funded public retirement schemes will become unaffordable for the Government by the time that my generation plans to retire, and loads of people my age will be completely screwed as a result.
MG42Maniac said:
35 and just under £100K. To be honest, I think for my wife and I to have a decent retirement we are going to have to massively increase our contributions. She is 30, self employed and sticking in a few hundred a month. When I have looked online, for £30K a year, I need to be adding in £1000 a month :/
Click to expand...
Are those numbers inflation adjusted? My financial advisor ran some retirement calculations for me a few years ago and said that planning for $60K per year in today's money (at age 65 in the early 2050s) will equate to about $450K per year actual, which will require a retirement fund of about $9 million with a 5% drawdown. He thinks that $9 million is possible if I put in at least $20K per year until retirement, and I get good investment returns averaging out to be in the teens %. With that said, I try to aim to save at least 15% of my annual compensation into specific retirement accounts, with additional saving into taxable savings when I can.
 
Last edited:
jon86 said:
I greatly worry that the obligations from all the non-funded public retirement schemes will become unaffordable for the Government by the time that my generation plans to retire, and loads of people my age will be completely screwed as a result.

Are those numbers inflation adjusted? My financial advisor ran some retirement calculations for me a few years ago and said that planning for $60K per year in today's money (at age 65 in the early 2050s) will equate to about $450K per year actual, which will require a retirement fund of about $9 million with a 5% drawdown. He thinks that $9 million is possible if I put in at least $20K per year until retirement, and I get good investment returns averaging out to be in the teens %. With that said, I try to aim to save at least 15% of my annual compensation into specific retirement accounts, with additional saving into taxable savings when I can.
Click to expand...

Those numbers just aren't relevant in the UK :D UK pensions have a lifetime limit of ~ £1mil. Beyond that it's more cost effective to invest in ISA and S&S
 
Surveyor said:
Which Civil Service pension scheme is paying out 80% of salary and a decent lump sum at age 68?
Click to expand...

Civil service alpha pension is what I'm in.

Using their retirement calculator, based on my last annual benefit statement. It estimates a £40k lump sum and 80% of my annual earnings, if I retire at the state pension age of 68.
 
DanTheMan said:
Civil service alpha pension is what I'm in.

Using their retirement calculator, based on my last annual benefit statement. It estimates a £40k lump sum and 80% of my annual earnings, if I retire at the state pension age of 68.
Click to expand...
Is that lump sum 25%? So your pension pot would only be worth £160k?
 
have about 150k myself in now and 51..... The calculator based on that prediction has just made realise I will be working till I am well past retirement age. Currently pay 15% of salary with the company paying 5% (bit ****) Might was well stop all the pension overpayment and get rid of the mortgage sooner then put all the spare into Crypto.

Thankyou Tory government you have been brilliant and fantastic for me......................Oh wait..... a 3year could do better.
 
Last edited:
Fortunate to be in a position where I can make maximum pension contribution each year. In fact, I wish they'd increase the annual allowance. I've also used up all my carry forward from previous years.

45 now and aiming to finish at 60 with a bit of luck. Will depend entirely on how much is in the pot at that time.
 
I am still planning to retire at 60. have had a count down to retirement app on my phone for years (actually its not on there now as i reset my phone recently, must get back on that).

however 60 just happens to align for when my lad is potentially going to uni. we are putting away £200 a month into a uni savings account for him and have since birth but even so it may be a bit of a squeeze.

not giving up on that dream however... life is too short. whilst one grandfather died at around 94, my other died in mid 40s when my dad was only 14 (obviously i never met him)

i am not the heathiest person now and already past the point he kicked the bucket so am planning on giving up work as soon as i can.

luckily my life style is not too extravagant - tho i do hope to start up the holidays abroad again once the lad gets a little older. I reckon i could get by on a yearly £20k salary (inflation adjusted) if i had to.
 
Last edited:
ci_newman said:
Those numbers just aren't relevant in the UK :D UK pensions have a lifetime limit of ~ £1mil. Beyond that it's more cost effective to invest in ISA and S&S
Click to expand...
I appreciate that the UK retirement savings law is different from the USA. We have much more generous retirement savings limits and estate tax limits. For example, I can pass down ~$11 million in assets to my kids without any Federal estate taxes having to be paid. I can also save an aggregate (employee + employer) of about $54,000 in my 401K employer-provided retirement account per year, in addition to my wife and I being able to save another $6K each in our individual retirement accounts.

In the USA, we have "traditional" (pre-tax) retirement accounts and "Roth" (after-tax) retirement accounts. I'm doing all of my retirement saving as after-tax (Roth) saving, because the current tax law says that the earnings on that money is completely tax free. My financial advisor told me that, at my age, ~90% of my final retirement account value will be growth, so would I rather pay tax on 10% of the money or 100%? In the UK, it seems that there is no equivalent to saving after-tax money where the growth is untaxed. Perhaps I'm wrong on that though.

Some folks on the British Expats forum have clued me into a potential retirement strategy that other dual UK/US citizens have used and are currently using: Save all you can in the USA as Roth contributions, then at retirement age, move back to the UK. In doing so, you'll avoid having to pay very expensive mandatory (retirement) US Federal Medicare health insurance, and you'll be able to take distributions from your Roth retirement accounts in the UK tax free, due to the UK-USA dual tax treaty allowing tax free distributions in one country if they're tax free in the other. This sounds like a significant tax-saving strategy to me, even though I will probably live in the USA for the rest of my life and not take advantage of this opportunity.
 
Last edited:
dLockers said:
God man, the civil service pensions are double edged swords aren't they. Couldn't imagine working to 68. My dad was dead by 65.
Click to expand...

Not a chance I'm working until 68. We'll have been mortgage free for 28 years by that point, so plenty of time to invest separately. Also got a stocks and shares ISA and some other investments that I hope to be able to drawn down on by 55/60.

200sols said:
Is that lump sum 25%? So your pension pot would only be worth £160k?
Click to expand...

There isn't a 'pot' with the defined benefit scheme. I accrue 2.32% of my annual pensionable earnings as a pension, so 35 years paying in would equal just over 80% of my average annual pay at retirement.
 
Last edited:
41k? Plus...
Total or is that per month payout.

Either way I'm 100% going to be dead by pension age so aslong as my nearest and dearest are covered I'm not wasting money in anythingvthan job pension, which is ok ...
 
Aiming for £1m in the pot by retirement, then I'll be going for a perpetual pension strategy. Therefore the capital won't be fully drawn down, and it gets passed down to the offspring and they get a big leg up.
 
Non-contributory military pension.

£18k per year + £60k+ lump sum when i leave at age 52 and then £23k from SPA - don't know what that would cost privately.

But wifey only has a small pension, so we are counting on the State Pension for a decent retirement as oppose to just surviving - but deffo getting worried about means testing or scrapped altogether!
 
ivrytwr3 said:
Non-contributory military pension.

£18k per year + £60k+ lump sum when i leave at age 52 and then £23k from SPA - don't know what that would cost privately.

But wifey only has a small pension, so we are counting on the State Pension for a decent retirement as oppose to just surviving - but deffo getting worried about means testing or scrapped altogether!
Click to expand...
Private thats close to £750k. You would need to have a job paying £100k for a long time to build that sort of pot.

Government pensions are still insane.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom